Enchantment (8)

Commander

Instant (2)

Description

The idea is simple, commander on the go. Rules are the same as EDH with a few exceptions

Deck construction.

Hero card: Like a commander but it can be any creature. except for those banned from E.D.H. a player may only have 1 copy of their Hero. Your deck is still defined by your heroes color/s

Excluding your hero, you must have 2 copies of each card in your deck, with the exception of basic lands. leaving room for anywhere between 18-20 different cards in your deck.

A deck must have and may not exceed 61 cards including your hero.

Health starts at 20 and there is no commander damage.

Above is a simple goblin deck using these rules. Red in it's simplest format, small creatures and burn.

Feel free to post your decks below or give feedback. the current banned list is the standard EDH banned list. if you feel a card is TOO powerful please leave a comment and we'll put it under consideration.

Updates

This is for everyone who gave me a positive response on this format! Thank you tapped out for adding Hero to your official format section. I never expected that hero would pick up so well. Thank you all!

August 1, 2012
6:50 p.m.

August 1, 2012
6:56 p.m.

This seems like a more expensive EDH. At least in EDH I only need one copy of the expensive cards I want to play with, and with the longer games of the format, cards that aren't viable in other formats -- and thus usually very cheap -- are playable.

Does the commander zone work the same way?

August 1, 2012
7:03 p.m.

It seems to me that the HERO is any creature. And isn't determined by rarity or Legend. As for the cards. The only restriction is "2 of" which unlike EDH or Noble as the '1 of' and Noble is 4 uncommons and the rest commons.

August 1, 2012
7:04 p.m.

KevinLS yes the commander zone works the same way. and Jokernaught when played i'm 100% sure this will have it's own feel to it. Yes any creature can be your hero, though that doesn't mean any creature will make a good hero.

I wanted to build this format to promote faster game play while keeping everything balanced. the most expensive cards won't particularly be the best in this format, and neither will the most "powerful" cards.

Commander is my favorite format, but I find a lot of people don't want to play 1+ hour matches.

August 1, 2012
7:51 p.m.

August 1, 2012
7:56 p.m.

yes combo's are allowed, though it is a casual format, so if too many people complain about an unfair combo it will probably be removed. this is currently the alpha, and there are bound to be rule changes. I'm hoping to get people to test this format and give feedback. I know i'm going to make a few decks to test out at my local store.

August 2, 2012
7:48 p.m.

And here's my hand at a deck. Hero of the Parish (Hero Format). I figured I'd use the fact that any creature may be the Hero. Another idea that crossed my mind was Merfolk, use a less useful lord or clone as a Hero and fill your deck up with Merfolk.

August 2, 2012
8:48 p.m.

Jokernaught, Griselbrand
has been banned from edh since the first week of avacyn because of crazy draw and win. I might playtest him in this format but i don't think the outcome would be any different.

August 2, 2012
11:02 p.m.

But it seems that this is really catching on. the Champion of the Parish
on looks really cool. We need to get a specific page that we can use to post one another's decks. Somewhere in the general form, so we can have an accurate way of swapping ideas and deciding which combos need to be looked into. Rather then clutter this deck page.

August 3, 2012
3:28 a.m.

It seems like Griselbrand
shouldn't be banned from this format given its constructed-style decks. It's crazy in EDH because that kind of card draw when you have 40 life to start with is just madness, but if you're running it like a more restricted constructed format (in which it is not banned) then there shouldn't be any problem with it. Perhaps banning it as a general but not as an element of a deck?

August 3, 2012
9:51 p.m.

August 3, 2012
10:03 p.m.

Go ahead and run whatever you want. for now i just copied the ban list from edh, though sol ring was my personal ban. having 5 mana on turn one is too much. and you could still play a 3 cost colorless. thats not fun for anyone.

turn one play a land, play Sol Ring
tap it to play another Sol Ring
then tap that sol ring to play lets say Azorius Signet
use the last floating mana to tap the signet and play a 2 cost creature or another signet. 6 to 7 mana turn one is too much and not fun for anyone.

August 4, 2012
12:31 a.m.

August 4, 2012
12:32 a.m.

How does the Hero zone work? Just the same as commander zone, cause if so and without some of the ramp you can get in EDH, might it not be an idea to change the rules on Heros.

As an idea, what about letting Hero's go to the Graveyard, and be returnable to the Commander Zone by paying a mana cost? That way you can allow for more combos and reanimators. Or some other cost?

And are you going to relax the rules on card colour? For example, allow people to include lands that produce a colour according to hero and a colour that isn't a hero colour, but instead of producing the other colour, it produces colourless or something? I can just think of some good lands that are multiple coloured.

August 4, 2012
5:38 a.m.

Going outside of your heroes color identity utterly breaks the format. I won't be lax on that. The commander zone has always worked the same. you can choose to not use it after your hero/commander has been cast. shenanigans will all work the same.

I feel those rules are extremely solid and work well in this format. there are always going to be crazy combo's. regardless if you change the rules on the command zone.

August 7, 2012
4:46 p.m.

I like this format idea a lot. My only concern is that it only seems to heavily favor tribal and possibly mill. It also doesn't seem to be able to go more than 2 colors but I would gladly be proven wrong. In any case I'll make a mill based deck and see how it plays out.

August 8, 2012
11:27 a.m.

If you want shorter Commander games, play with no more than 5 people (preferably 4), and try out 30-life life totals instead of 40. I'm not sure if a whole new Commander Lite format is needed to fix what a quick house rule could do. I'm assuming that since you didn't mention the Command Zone, that still exists in this format, in which case that's the only way the deck would play differently from a casual Krenko build, and the 2-of restriction is the only way the deck looks different on paper from casual builds. One thing I enjoyed about Commander was that it was obviously a unique format, in many ways; general/commander damage being one of them, which you've dropped (probably because you're playing 20 life instead of 40 or 30).

That said, if people like this format, enjoy. Personally, I think you should stick to the legendary creature restriction from Commander for the hero rather than leave it open to just any creature. There are plenty of legendary creatures, and while it's technically a restriction, it makes it easier for players new to the format to craft a deck, as they have a lot fewer choices than choosing from any creature in Magic. It's also a shame you can't keep in general/commander damage. I also still think just dropping Commander lifetotals to 30 is a way better way of having good, faster games than creating a new format; perhaps you should try that out at least, so you don't completely give up on Commander, as, after all, you're more likely to find games of Commander than a brand new format.

August 8, 2012
6:01 p.m.

August 8, 2012
6:04 p.m.

August 8, 2012
6:06 p.m.

to sarroth, i love commander, it's my favorite format. I created this to be a more open ended version of it. I wanted a good middle ground between commander and noble. more open ended but using the same rules. I wanted to keep commander damage, and i'm thinking of adding it back in, but making it so if you deal 40 commander damage the game is over. seeing as how people will use infinite lifegain and what not. let me know if you think that's a good idea.

August 8, 2012
6:09 p.m.

If this keeps the same rules as EDH, I don't see how Memnarch
would be legal. That's a mana symbol on the card outside of the commander's color identity. Are we not worrying about symbols on the card? Like you could use Lingering Souls
in a Champion of the Parish
deck?

August 8, 2012
7:55 p.m.

"903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that cards mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204)."

And

"903.5c A card can be included in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also found in the color identity of the decks commander."

And by this rule, Lingering Souls
can not be played in an otherwise mono-white deck. And Memnarch
is a Blue general.

August 8, 2012
8:56 p.m.

August 8, 2012
9:08 p.m.

@ieanbrewman: Your motives are understandable. I like the idea of keeping Commander Damage. You might even keep it at 21, as that's not much different than doing normal damage in a 20-life format but is still a choice against life-gain decks; plus keeping it at 21 requires less extra learning for Commander players moving over to the format.

Good luck with your format! Although, selfishly, I hope it doesn't catch on as much as Commander because the last thing I need is an excuse to build 3 more decks, lol.

August 11, 2012
1:29 p.m.

August 11, 2012
2:04 p.m.

seriously, commander/EDH is one of my favorite formats because of the combos and the gameplay, especially in multiplayer. Hero format, especially if it became endorsed or something, would be amazing. Even more amazing for TappedOut, since it would all start here and generate a lot of traffic

August 12, 2012
2:14 a.m.

I'll get right on the changes. I think ianbrewman will have a side sight up(?) not sure. But I think the list of banned cards here is up to date. We will add to the list as the format is better explored. (like what as been down with the Noble Format)

October 26, 2012
9:43 p.m.

October 27, 2012
12:30 a.m.

Personally I think that forcing 2 of each card is brilliant, it forces people to double up on what they think is good, if you change it to up to one of each you are playing just a smaller deck version of EDH, which granted is what i gather part of the point is, but still. It's just going to be EDH with 40 less cards.

November 17, 2012
4:30 p.m.

November 17, 2012
4:35 p.m.

Um? Could you clarify your agreement better? Maybe make a claim, a statement that 60 singleton is better. Then provide the evidence to support that claim, like facts and things. Then provide with a firm reason why this is better. If we are going to edit the format, please provide us with at least this.

As for the suggested banned list cards, please us the [ [Brackets] ] (without spaces) and provide a reason why we should ban them.

November 17, 2012
8:19 p.m.

I see no reason as of now to ban skull clamp, as it's not the main problem. being able to draw cards shouldn't be frowned upon, especially in a 60 card deck where you can be milled quite easily.

As joker said please explain why you think those cards should be banned and please use the brackets to make it easier for us to review them.

This format is specifically not singleton because it forces the player to make crucial and much more difficult decisions while building there hero deck.

My exact reason for making this format was to let the lesser creatures everyone knows are awesome shine. that Vampire Nighthawk
? yeah he can be a commander now, that card:Ajani's Pridemate? yeah he can be a commander now. how about things like Restoration Angel
? playing at instant speed from the command zone? how freaking crazy would that be? the whole idea is to build a deck around that ONE creature you fell in love with when you started playing commander. but at the same time not making it super tedious to build or play.

now tell me how making this format singleton would in any way make games shorter, or decks easier to build? i'm not trying to exactly copy EDH, Hero has it's own feel. and needs to be experienced as such. with the idea of commander far far in the distance.

November 18, 2012
4:35 a.m.

Especially because you can have a commander zur -> necropotence -> win game type deck atm. Or dark ritual necro if you have it, and tutor is just... yeah, since this is a 61 card format with doubles. Basically, with demonic tutor in the doubles 61 card format you can essentially run an effective necropotence deck.

August 3, 2013
9:16 p.m.

August 6, 2013
5:46 a.m.

"Excluding your hero, you must have 2 copies of each card in your deck, with the exception of basic lands"Up to 2, up to.With enforced 2-of you may as well be playing 30 card singleton decks for all the variety of deckbuilding possible.

Sorcery (12)

Enchantment (8)

2x Boggart&emsp13;Shenanigans

2x Dual&emsp13;Casting

2x Leyline&emsp13;of&emsp13;Punishment

2x Warstorm&emsp13;Surge

Commander

Instant (2)

2x Brightstone&emsp13;Ritual

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